A chilly weekend, but hang on a sec
If I could ask anything of local media today, it would be to stop writing clickbaity headlines about the weather. CTV talks here about temperatures at –20° this weekend, and while it won’t be warm, no overnight temperature on the Environment Canada page goes so low. And spare me the “feels like” forecasts.
dwgs 15:38 on 2021-01-27 Permalink
CBC radio this morning (maybe it was yesterday) plugged an upcoming piece on climate change and then literally in the next breath made a big deal about how it was going to get very cold soon with temps going all the way down to -9 or -10. I almost threw the radio across the room.
walkerp 16:01 on 2021-01-27 Permalink
So with you on this.
Kevin 17:09 on 2021-01-27 Permalink
I agree with you Kate.
Some people don’t know that wind chill is not the actual temperature.
Clément 18:26 on 2021-01-27 Permalink
I had a long discussion with someone who no longer uses actual temperatures, but rather the “feels like” temperature. I told him “But if you stick a thermometer outside, it will not display the feels like temperature, but the actual temperature”. His response: “That’s because it’s an old thermometer. The newer ones are calibrated to read the new temperatures.” I wish I was kidding.
GC 18:48 on 2021-01-27 Permalink
What??? Oh, man.
dhomas 18:51 on 2021-01-27 Permalink
@Clément It could be worse. They could use Fahrenheit. ;p
PO 19:01 on 2021-01-27 Permalink
Can’t explain the discrepancy between the news outlet and Environment Canada.
But it should be noted: wind chill is a real and important way of characterizing the outdoor temp. We’re all wet warm bodies, and the convective effect of wind is very real. – 20C with a strong wind will bring about frostbite or induce hypothermia much faster than – 20C in still air. Way faster.
https://www.ccohs.ca/images/oshanswers/chart021.gif
Those “feels like” forecasts usually take that into account, and maybe the wet bulb temperature, other considerations, etc. I don’t believe it’s sensationalism. It’s the meteorologists giving you a heads up so you don’t do harm to yourself.
j2 20:19 on 2021-01-27 Permalink
Like I care about any temperature after 8pm.
Mark Côté 07:28 on 2021-01-28 Permalink
The Weather Network says it’s going down to -21 overnight on Saturday. The weather app on my phone says the same. Environment Canada says -19, which is pretty darn close. So doesn’t look like a big exaggeration to me…
dmdiem 09:09 on 2021-01-28 Permalink
PO is exactly right. Wind chill and humidex are both measures of heat transfer. These are important numbers. They should stop using the term “feels like”. It has nothing to do with feelings. It’s physics. People keep forgetting the fact that we live in a country where the outside is actively trying to murder us.
CE 10:27 on 2021-01-28 Permalink
I was in the US a couple years ago and holed up in a hotel on the edge of the suburbs with no car so I watched a lot of TV. It was fascinating to see how exaggerated and sensationalist their news coverage was but it really hit home when I saw the weather. The forecast would lead with the max low with windchill. They barely mentioned the average temperature without windchill.
If you’re inside and concerned about how the temperature outside will affect the temperature of your home, is the real temperature the one to look at? That would matter more than ever these days.
Raymond Lutz 10:34 on 2021-01-28 Permalink
It’s heat transfer for exposed skin, as if you were outdoor in a simple bath suit… So cover up (even your nose tip) and voilà: meaningless wind chill temperature value!
You can’t protect yourself against “humidex”, though… (it’s left as an exercice to the reader to see why).
@CE: Wind does influence thermal lost through external walls, not as much as exposed skin, cependant.
Raymond Lutz 10:35 on 2021-01-28 Permalink
thermal losses
PO 10:53 on 2021-01-28 Permalink
@Raymond Lutz: Plenty of people don’t always cover up their hands or faces when outside, especially the hands and face. And boots & clothing still conduct heat, so wind chill still counts for something. It’s far from meaningless.
Bill Binns 10:54 on 2021-01-28 Permalink
You haven’t seen weather sensationalism until you spend a hurricane season in Florida. It was absolutely comical. There would be a tropical storm barely off the coast of Africa and the TV weather guys would stop wearing ties, stop shaving and carefully cultivate this “I have been awake for days” appearance. As if the whole state was waiting for Fox News 6 weather talker to determine the likely path of the storm.
Uatu 11:32 on 2021-01-28 Permalink
I quit watching weather forecasts. I just use my app because it gives you the info with out hyperbole or Laurie Graham showing pictures of snowman building contests or internet crap you’ve seen 10000x of some guy jumping into a frosty lake
Mark Côté 13:34 on 2021-01-28 Permalink
Again, it is actually going to get down to -20 (or very close) on the weekend, not counting windchill, and it’s likely to be the coldest temperature we’ve seen so far this season. I guess you could quibble that “overnight” should have been in the headline but it doesn’t feel egregiously misleading.
Michael Black 14:03 on 2021-01-28 Permalink
The CBC forecast often is different from the one in The Gazette. I don’t know why they differ (it’s not windchill factor) and I don’t pay enough attention to keep track of which is right more often. CTV definitely showed colder temperatures for this weekend than the CBC forecast.
Toronto has an extreme cold warning for this weekend.
I do pay attention to windchill because it does make a difference. And there are times when the wind isn’t blowing, and the forecast is wrong at that particular time.
But tgese are warnings, like those about traffic. They help us make our own decisions.